According to estimates from the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were 119 million domestic tourism trips across the country during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, an increase of 11.5% over the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis; domestic tourists spent 53.95 billion yuan on travel, an increase of 12.7% over the same period in 2019.
This year’s Qingming Festival, various places continue the tradition of “remembering the heroes” and “returning to their hometowns to worship their ancestors”. Red tourist attractions in Shanxi, Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan and other places have carried out Tomb Sweeping Day commemoration activities for heroes. Tourists commemorate the revolutionary martyrs and inherit the red gene through various forms such as sightseeing tours, cloud memorial services, and participation in themed cultural activities.
At the same time, many families have started micro-tourism in the local area and surrounding villages. Data from Ctrip.com shows that during the holidays, domestic local travel orders increased by 211%, and domestic rural travel orders increased by 239%.
From “Going to Zibo for a barbecue” to “Tianshui is piping hot”… Emerging tourist destinations such as Zibo, Tianshui, Tai’an, Kaifeng and Jingdezhen have become new hot spots during holidays. Data from Qunar.com shows that during the Qingming Festival holiday, some train tickets from Beijing to Tianshui were sold out of business seats and first-class seats early, and hotel bookings in Tianshui increased 12 times; Kaifeng and Quanzhou were popular in the “Wang Po Matchmaking” and “Hairpin Flower Tour” Driven by the characteristic cultural tourism label, hotel bookings increased by 4.5 times and 3.3 times year-on-year respectively. On the Tujia B&B platform, as of April 6, Tianshui B&B bookings increased 18.8 times year-on-year, effectively driving B&B bookings in Lanzhou, Jiuquan, Longnan and other places.
Judging from the structure of tourists, the enthusiasm of college student “special forces” groups for traveling during the Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday is still high. Data from Qunar.com shows that tourists aged 18 to 25 account for more than 20% of the platform’s customer base and are the most active travel group.
“Tourists’ choices of destinations are showing a diversified trend, and they are pursuing unique and recognizable products or scenes. An old street, a vegetable market, and a unique food may become the trigger for a city to explode.” Qunar Big Xiao Peng, a researcher at the Data Research Institute, said.
Outings to enjoy flowers and outdoor hiking have become popular holiday themes. The Anshan Pear Blossom Festival, Luoyang Peony Cultural Festival, Tianjin Begonia Flower Festival, etc. have opened one after another. Municipal parks, country parks, theme parks and amusement parks, historical and cultural blocks, business districts, key tourist towns, etc. across the country are ushering in a tourist boom. Flower-viewing outings have been taken to a new level. On social platforms, national style dressing, new Chinese style, Hanfu makeup, etc. have become popular keywords for flower-viewing tours. According to data from Fliggy.com, the popularity of flower-viewing during holidays has nearly tripled year-on-year. Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Luoyang, Wuhan, etc. are popular cities for flower-viewing tours; bookings for tourism products including mountaineering experiences have increased more than five-fold year-on-year. Huangshan, Tai’an, Leshan, etc. are popular destinations for mountaineering tours during holidays. In addition, the giant panda “Fubao” returned to China, triggering a boom in zoo visits. Tongcheng travel data shows that searches for domestic zoo tourism during the holidays increased by 192% month-on-month.
During the Qingming Festival holiday, the number of inbound and outbound tourists was close to the same period in 2019, with 1.041 million inbound tourists and 992,000 outbound tourists. Hong Kong and Macao residents have increased demand for returning home to worship their ancestors, visit relatives and friends, and go sightseeing and shopping. The number of overseas Chinese entering Southeast Asia and other short-distance markets has increased significantly. Data from Tongcheng Travel Network shows that the most popular destinations for inbound air tickets are Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, and the popularity of inbound air tickets from cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Kunming is also high.